Friday, August 22, 2008

Misrepresenting a Trend

I am intrigued by the Amethyst Inistiative, a push by more than a hundred college and university presidents to reconsider the 21-year old drinking age. I will simply say that I have never heard any particularly valid reasons for drawing an arbitrary line preventing legal adults who otherwise bear every other right and responsibility of adulthood from participating in something that adults over that arbitrary age limit are allowed to do. But I'll leave dissecting that proposal to others.

I do, however, take issue with The New York Times' latest headline on the ongoing story: 2 Withdraw From Petition to Rethink Drinking Age. two college presidents in Georgia have indeed withdrawn their name from the petition. But fifteen more have signed on. Thus while the story's headline, which should give some sense of the true measure of the story, indicates waning support for the petition, the reality is that its number of proponents is growing, and is doing so substantially.